Dolly Parton's philanthropy was based on 'her belief in the goodness of people'

NEW YORK (AP) — Just weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated the American South in 2024, Dolly Parton stood on a stage in her iconic blonde wig, with a song on her lips. She promised the flood-ravaged community in her native Tennessee — to the tune of her classic song “Jolene” — that “we're all here to mend these broken hearts.”

For the music legend and multimillionaire businesswoman, that meant using her wealth for good. That day, she announced a $1 million donation, matched by her Dollywood companies and their partners, to an Appalachian relief nonprofit.

It's one of the enduring images of the charismatic humanitarian, whose good humor and straightforward generosity lifted the well-being of communities in her home state and beyond. Fans across generations and geographies say it will remain part of Parton's legacy. She died Tuesday at the age of 80 .

“I just give from my heart,” she said in a 2022 speech accepting the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy . “I never know what I’m going to do or why I’m gonna do it. I just see a need and if I can fill it, then I will.”

The Library of Congress called Parton a “titan of children's literacy” for the millions of free books provided monthly through her Imagination Library . Also well-known is the $1 million gift she made to Vanderbilt University's Medical Center to help develop Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine . The not-for-profit Dolly Parton Children's Hospital recently received an undisclosed sum to improve pediatric care across eastern Tennessee.

Then there's the quieter giving that the public was still uncovering in her final years. Internet sleuths realized she'd long paid for many Tennessee high schools' band uniforms. She bought a Nashville strip mall with her “I Will Always Love You” songwriting royalties to support the surrounding Black neighborhood.

The simplicity of her solutions is what made Parton so “magical,” according to Stacia West, the co-founder of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Guaranteed Income Research and an associate professor at the University of Tennessee. West studied Parton’s $12 million fund for families who lost their homes in the 2016 fires that swept through Sevier County, Tennessee. Through The My People Fund, as it was called, Parton's foundation provided families $1,000 per month for half the year with no strings attached.

The concept of providing unconditional cash was much more “taboo” at the time, West recalled. That trust in the fund’s beneficiaries to exercise their own agency is one lesson that West said philanthropy can take from Parton.

“The piece that really carries forward is her belief in the goodness of people and her ability to apply that to seemingly difficult problems,” West said.

Parton applied the same framework to her reading initiative, West noted. Rather than hand out library cards that still required the time and transportation to visit a local branch, Parton simply mailed books straight to participants' doors.

The fourth of 12 children from a poor Appalachian family, Parton said her father inspired the Imagination Library . He was a “very smart man,” she once recalled, and she “often wondered what he could have done had he been able to read and write.” Kids across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia have received more than 330 million books since the program began.

Ohio first lady Fran DeWine described Parton's “devotion to children and literacy” as “unparalleled.” Over a million children had received nearly 28 million books in the state, according to DeWine.

“Her generosity and selfless spirit leave a legacy that will live on for generations to come,” she said.

In addition to the Imagination Library’s work, Andrew Carnegie Foundation President Dame Louise Richardson noted the Dollywood Foundation’s efforts to “secure educational success for children born in poverty.” Parton started the foundation to provide college scholarships for students from the county where she grew up near the Great Smoky Mountains.

“What’s more, she made philanthropy fun!” Richardson said in a statement.

Parton's family asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Imagination Library — a fitting request given that Parton once said the initiative “meant as much, if not more to me, than nearly anything that I've ever done.”

“Of course, I’ll always be a singer-songwriter,” she said in a 2024 appearance expanding the program in Kentucky. “But I just hope people will just say she was a good ol’ girl, you know? She tried hard, she worked hard and she tried to make the world a better place and try to make people happy. And I will be doing that till I keel over.”

Gamboa reported from Cleveland. Staff writer Julie Carr Smyth contributed reporting from Columbus, Ohio.

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy .